Resigned priests are starting to emerge as a strong moral voice in support of marriage equality. Earlier this year, 80 resigned priests made a statement in support of marriage equality. This week, a group of 63 resigned priests in Washington State have made a public statement in support of the referendum to legalize marriage for gay and lesbian couples.

Reutersquoted from the statement to explain the group’s reason for making their views known:

“We feel the bishops are abusing their power in attempting to direct Catholics on how to vote on this civil matter and impose their position on all citizens, Catholic and non-Catholic.”

Pat Callahan

Pat Callahan, a church-goer who had been a priest for 15 years, organized the effort, and explained another motivation to Reuters:

“Progressive-thinking Catholics need the reassurance that there is more than one authentic Catholic position.”

“Nothing in this legislation infringes on religious rights or restricts the Catholic Church from maintaining its own standards for sacramental marriage: It simply provides the protection of civil law so that same sex couples may enjoy a set of civil and human rights involving health, financial and end-of-life decisions,” said the former priests, who remain active Catholics.

“We regret that our Washington State Catholic bishops have chosen to oppose Marriage Equality and attempt to impose what we feel is a very narrow point of view on all society.”

A separate Post-Intelligencer article reports that the former priests’s statement comes right after one of Washington State’s bishops issued a pastoral letter against the referendum:

“In the latest pastoral letter, Bishop Joseph J. Tyson of the Diocese of Yakima told his 41 parishes that Referendum 74 ‘jeopardizes freedom rather than expands it” and “endangers our religious liberty and the rights of conscience.’

“ ‘Once marriage is redefined as a genderless contract, it will become legally discriminatory for public and private institutions such as schools to promote the unique meaning of marriage . . .This law will challenge our right to educate about the unique value of children being raised by his or her own mother and father in a stable home,’ Tyson wrote.

“We are shocked when we read the language and examples used by our bishops to incite fear in our Catholic brothers and sisters if Referendum 74 passes. The message of Jesus is love and compassion, not fear.”

The former priests’ letter comes from a perspective with an immense amount of moral credibility: 1) they are men trained in theology and years of pastoral experience under their belts; 2) many of them are married and have raised families–perhaps even some with lesbian and gay children–and so they know the practical realities of love and relationship; 3) they are men who have been marginalized by church structures, so they know what it means to be excluded.

Their witness is a powerful testimony to both love of the church and the cause of justice and equality.

Maryland and Washington State both recently legalized marriage equality for lesbian and gay couples. In both states, the laws were signed by governors who are Catholics. However, both states now are experiencing campaigns to repeal these two laws through voter referendums. In both states, the Catholic hierarchy is heavily involved in collecting signatures to put the repeal of these laws on the ballot.

“The [Maryland]Catholic Conference and the Maryland Family Alliance are leading the effort to get the 56,000 signatures needed to take same sex marriage to a ballot referendum.”

What makes this news even more disturbing is that meetings to train people to lead the campaign were not open to the public:

“At a Hyattsville [Maryland] Catholic Church, the Maryland Family Alliance and Maryland Catholic Conference are hosting what will be one of at least 25 training sessions for volunteers—most of which will be done behind closed doors.”

Why the secrecy? If the Maryland Catholic Conference believes that what it is doing is right, why aren’t they allowing the public to be part of the process? Why aren’t they allowing the press to witness their deliberations?

In Washington State, bishops allowing parishes to collect signatures after Sunday Masse for that state’s anti-marriage equality referendum. In a letter to Catholics, Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle stated:

“Because we believe that this issue is critically important, we support Referendum 74 and have approved the gathering of signatures in our parishes over the next few months. Your pastors have received from us information regarding the signature drive, and we requested that they not collect signatures on Palm Sunday or Easter Sunday. After Easter, signatures may be gathered on Referendum 74.”

If the archbishop believes that this signature-collecting effort is the right thing to do, then why not allow it to happen on Palm Sunday and Easter? If the effort is a good one, it should be proper to do on any Sunday.

According to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog post, Bishop Joseph Tyson of Yakima, Washington, is also allowing signatures to be collected at parishes. The blog post quotes a letter from the bishop on the diocesan website:

“We will . . . provide every opportunity for parishes throughout our state to participate in gathering signatures for Referendum 74 in order to place it before voters in November.

“Should the referendum qualify for the ballot, parishes also may support the referendum to overturn the law.”

The Washington State Catholic Conference has made petitions to repeal the law available on their website. The petitions are produced by an organization named “Preserve Marriage Washington” which is identified on the Catholic Conference website as “an entity created by the National Organization for Marriage.”

Referendum campaigns are won or lost depending on which side is more capable of turning out the vote. These incidents illustrate how the Catholic hierarchy has a strong advantage because of the huge communications infrastructure they have with parishes. Marriage equality supporters will have to find creative ways of getting their message of equality and justice to what we know is the overwhelming majority of Catholics who want to protect marriage for lesbian and gay couples.